


Tied to the Shifting Ground

by AyraBelle



Series: You Were the Perfect Storm [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 20:37:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12261639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyraBelle/pseuds/AyraBelle
Summary: A collection of random snippets.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A collection of random snippets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writers block hit me bad, so I had my husband give me 5 random words and I wrote some short bits for each.

**Beautiful**

Lance really couldn’t believe his luck, some times. Keith was passed out on the couch when he got home from rehearsal, papers strewn about the coffee table. It was midterm season, and Lance knew that Keith had a lot of tests to grade. That didn’t stop Keith from making him dinner and keeping it in the oven for him to eat when he got home. Lance tried his best to convince Keith that he didn’t need the homemade dinners every night, but Keith insisted. Just like he insisted on trying to stay up until Lance got home even though his first class started at 8.30a.

Lance didn’t want to leave the oven on longer than necessary so he quickly grabbed his plate and sat at their small table to eat. He chose the spot where he could watch Keith sleeping because Keith looked beautiful while he was sleeping. He looked beautiful while he was awake, too, Lance thought to himself. He supposed that his soulmate was just a beautiful guy.

Lance finished his arroz con pollo and put the plate in the sink. Washing it was a problem for Future Lance. Present Lance needed to get his husband into bed before he woke up with a sore back. Lance liked to think he was a good soulmate, and letting Keith go to work tomorrow in pain would go against everything he prided himself on.

Keith blinked sleepily at him when Lance shook his shoulder. “C’mon, buddy, I don’t want to carry you but you need to sleep in bed.”

Keith grumbled incoherently but let himself be led to the bedroom where he proceeded to flop face first onto the mattress and fall back asleep. Lance shrugged – if he didn’t want to change out of his jeans that wasn’t on Lance – and went to brush his teeth.

Once he was back out and changed into his own sleepwear, Lance had to pause again. Keith had shifted to lay on his side and Lance found himself falling in love all over again. While he was watching, Keith opened one eye and raised that eyebrow at Lance in obvious invitation. Lance smiled and crawled under the covers, snuggling up against Keith’s warmth. He really was lucky.

 

**Car**

“What the quiznak.”

“I still don’t know what that means.”

“I don’t care. Why is the car making that noise?”

“Well, I’m only a theater major but I think that there might be something wrong.”

“It’s a good thing you’re here – I never would have figured that out on my own.”

“I know that you’re annoyed so I’m not going to take that personally.”

“Whatever.”

“Where are you going?”

“To open up the hood.”

“Is that going to help you at all?”

“Well, no, but if I can see something that is smoking then that will be what’s wrong.”

“Do you want me to call Hunk? He might be able to help.”

“I don’t think he will – I don’t see anything amiss and I don’t know how to describe it to him. Would you be able to?”

“Uhhhh… not really. That might be a problem.”

“You think?”

“We’ll be fine! We can call a tow truck.”

“And it’ll take us right back to campus, basically. Didn’t you want to see the competition?”

“Of course! But I’m not thinking that we’ll make it there with the sounds that are currently happening.”

“Go ahead and get an Uber – I’ll head back and see what’s going on with this thing.”

“Nah, I’ll keep you company. Who knows when the truck is going to show up.”

“I don’t want you to miss out–”

“Don’t worry about me. Now would you rather be carried away by balloons or have to generate the electricity to charge your phone manually?”

“What the quiznak.”

“I still don’t know what that means.”

 

**Wine**

Keith had never been a fan of wine. It just wasn’t his favorite.

So why in God’s name was that all that Lance drank?

“Did you get any beer at the store?” he called out, rifling through the fridge.

There was a suspiciously long silence before Lance called back to him. “I got wine…”

Keith swore under his breath. Looked like he was just having water tonight. He walked into the living room to see Lance with a sheepish look on his face.

“Sorry,” he said, looking at his own glass of wine.

Keith shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal,” he promised.

Days later, Keith had forgotten that exchange until he was opening his fridge after a particularly long day. He really needed a beer, but he remembered that there wasn’t going to be any.

Except there was. His favorite kind, too. Lance was even busier than Keith, but he must have gone out specially to get some beer for Keith. He realized that he was grinning like a loon and took out one bottle. Time to put some extra effort into dinner tonight.

 

**Pasta**

“Why are you in my apartment?”

“I’m making you dinner!” Lance announces, stepping over to block Keith from entering the kitchen. “Don’t look – it’s a surprise!”

Keith looks over Lance’s shoulder at the stove. Nothing is actively on fire, so he supposes that Lance can be left alone for the time being. He makes his way over to sit next to Pidge on the couch, who is playing Overwatch. Keith isn’t sure whether their kitchen can afford him getting involved in a game with Lance manning the stove. He decides to chance it, but before he can get his own game system started up a quickly-stifled yelp comes from the kitchen.

Pidge looks at Keith. “He’s your soulmate.”

Keith looks back at Pidge. “You’re the one that let him in.”

Nevertheless, Keith knows that he is going to be the one to fix whatever mess Lance has gotten himself into. Bracing himself for the worst, he enters the kitchen.

Lance is holding his hand under a stream of cool water and the pot on the stove is sideways, revealing burnt pasta.

“How did you manage this?” Keith asks incredulously. He checks to make sure that Lance is alright before grabbing a potholder and starting to clean up the pasta.

“It didn’t say how much water to put in!” Lance defends himself from the sink. “I know that rice you need to not use a lot of water since it absorbs the water, so I thought pasta was the same. I don’t want soggy pasta, Keith.”

“Then what did you make of the fact that the instructions probably say to drain the pasta after it’s cooked?” Keith asks, throwing the burnt remains into the trash.

Lance looks upset at the outcome of his cooking attempt, so Keith takes pity on him. “Keep your hand cool and I’ll order us some pizza.”

Lance flashes him a grateful smile as Pidge yells from the other room. “I want cheese!”

 

**Bay**

Lance had always liked this spot. It was where his family would drive when they wanted to go to the beach, and then it was where Lance would drive himself when he really needed to get away from everything.

The sun was setting and the sky was awash in pinks and oranges. The water was calm – or as calm as an ocean ever was – and Lance even saw some fins popping out of the water far away from the shore.

The serenity of the moment was broken when he heard someone walking up behind him. Before Lance could react, Keith lowered himself to sit next to Lance. Keith looked like he was tired and worried and Lance winced – he probably should have left a note or something saying where he had gone – and braced himself for the scolding that he deserved.

But Keith said nothing. He didn’t even look at Lance.

Lance felt something in his heart break. He didn’t deserve a soulmate like Keith.

Keith seemed to hear the stutter in Lance’s breath and simply raised an arm to wrap it around his shoulders. And that was enough – suddenly Lance was crying into Keith’s chest and Keith was holding him close. He didn’t feel like he deserved this, but he didn’t want it to end.

When he had cried himself out, Lance simply clung to Keith and Keith just readjusted to make it easier for them to sit in the strange position they were in. He still didn’t say anything, and the sun had long since set, but Lance knew that they were alright.

They were soulmates – and they really did make a great team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to the Anon that sent me an ask on tumblr because the AO3 kudos wasn't working. Not gonna lie, you totally made my day, friend!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to take the Inktober 2018 prompts and write 250-500 words each day. 
> 
> And then didn't manage to actually post them here until a month and a half later...

> ****I. Poisonous****

“Don’t eat that!”

Keith paused in his looting of Lance and Hunk’s kitchen, looking at his romantic in confusion. The container of stew seemed innocent enough, and he glanced back up to raise an eyebrow at Lance.

Lance took two quick strides across the small kitchen and pulled the container out of Keith’s hands, making a face. Seeing Keith’s look of pure confusion, he pointed to the calendar. “Hunk made this like a month and a half ago – it’s probably poisonous by now.”

Keith pulled a face in return. “Then why is it still in your fridge?”

Lance put the probably-not-stew-anymore back in the fridge. “Hunk said that I should clean it, I said that he should clean it, we are at an impasse.” He shrugged, grabbing something else instead. “Here – he made this yesterday, it’s still good.”

Keith took the Tupperware and opened it, grinning when he saw his favorite samosas that Hunk made. He wasted no time in popping one in his mouth – not even bothering to heat the first one up.

“He only makes those for you,” Lance complained, eying the container.

Keith’s mouth was full and the microwave was dinging at him, but he could only look at Lance. “Wha?”

Lance shrugged, grabbing his own Tupperware of empanadas. “Hunk knows how much you like those. When he heard that you were coming over to study, he cooked up a batch. We’re friends and all, soulmates even, but Keith you had better be satisfied with those because I’m not sharing my empanadas.”

Keith smiled softly, taking his plate out of the microwave and joining Lance at the table. Hunk had made his favorite especially for him, and he couldn’t help the feeling that inspired. “I suppose I’ll have to make do.”

> ****II. Tranquil****

_In the eye of the hurricane  
There is quiet_

The new school year’s classes don’t start for another month. It is time for a vacation.

They don’t exactly have a lot of money, so Lance suggests that he and Keith just drive to San Diego and spend the week doing whatever they want.

They check in to their hotel and make a beeline for the beach – thankfully they picked a hotel with a private beach so it’s not too crowded. Lance likes to show off his soul-tat, so he quickly strips off his shirt and hands the sunscreen to Keith with a suggestive smile and raised eyebrows. Keith just raises an eyebrow back before squirting some on Lance’s nose. As Lance squawks and makes sure that it doesn’t go into his eyes, Keith laughs and applies some to himself before getting Lance’s back as requested. They relax on the beach for a little while until Lance is warm and drags Keith to the water.

They arrived in the afternoon, so they don’t have much time on the beach before it gets dark and they decide that room service on their room’s balcony is better than going somewhere to get food.

After they eat, they sit next to each other and look out over the water.

“This is really nice,” Lance whispers, not wanting to break the reverent silence that has fallen over them both.

Keith hums in agreement and leans into Lance’s shoulder. Lance wraps an arm around Keith and leans into him as well, both watching the sunset.

_For just a moment  
A yellow sky_

> ****III. Roasted****

Fall was the best time of the year because of the food. Lance was snacking on some roasted nuts when he got a text from Keith – it seemed his exam was finally over so Lance tossed the empty bag and made his way to the exam hall.

Lance felt himself sigh when he spotted Keith leaning against a column and just looking out across the quad. He still couldn’t believe that he had such an awesome romantic sometimes, and he snapped a quick subtle picture before striding into Keith’s line of sight.

“Hey, babe,” Lance greeted him, leaning in for a kiss. “How was the exam?”

Keith grinned, face lighting up and reciprocating the kiss before responding. “Not too bad, I think I did alright.” He paused a moment to clear his throat, and then frowned.

Lance looked at him, confused to see tears welling in his eyes. “Whoa, babe, are you alright?”

Keith nodded, but went to scratch at his eyes. “Ugh, I think someone nearby might have walnuts.” His voice turned raspy, and Lance could see him rubbing at his neck in an attempt to alleviate the scratchiness inside.

Lance frowned a moment, looking around before a thought struck and he slapped both hands over his own mouth. “Oh, shit.” It was muffled through his hands, and when Keith looked at him through watery, red eyes Lance felt terrible. “Oh God, I’m so sorry. I had some roasted nuts – there must have been a walnut in there. I’m a horrible soulmate. Don’t look at me – I don’t want you to die.”

“Lance, calm down – I’m not going to die,” Keith insisted, though his voice was still scratchy and his eyes were red and Lance backed up a pace. “I’m not that allergic – I’ll just take some of my drugs when I get home. Besides – I won’t have a reaction by looking at a walnut so I can still look at you.”

Lance shook his head, hands still over his mouth. “Nope, not taking any chances. Go home and take your allergy medicine.”

Keith pouted, and with the allergic reaction still happening he looked especially pitiful. “But I wanted to hang out with you this evening.”

“Not before I shower and brush my teeth. I probably still have dangerous walnut dust all over me.”

Keith shook his head. “If I go take my drugs and you do whatever you need, then will you come over and cuddle with me?”

Lance couldn’t say no to that. “Alright, fine – I’ll be over soon.” He barely held back from kissing Keith’s cheek and dashed back to his own apartment, scrubbing at his skin and brushing his teeth twice. He wasn’t sure how long it took for allergic reactions to go away, but he hoped that some cuddling and pizza would make up for it.

> ****IV. Spell****

Lance is writing furiously when Keith walks in. While this is not necessarily unusual, it’s not particularly common either – and Keith’s curiosity is further piqued when Lance only offers him a glance and nod before leaning back over his computer.

Keith takes his time putting his school bag away and cautiously sits next to Lance on the couch. When there is still no response, he leans over to see what Lance is writing so passionately.

“That’s not how pompous is spelled.”

“That’s not the point!” Lance defends himself.

“Then what even is the point?” Keith asks. “You’re a full page and a half in and you haven’t made any points aside from the fact that you’ve obviously broken your spellchecker.”

“My point is that this new director wouldn’t know talent if it smacked him in the face while dancing the Macarena,” Lance explains, punctuating his sentences with particularly violent jabs of keys.

Keith sniggers. “But the Macarena is so simple – it wouldn’t take that much talent to do that.”

Lance pauses a moment but doesn’t take Keith’s unsaid advice to heart and instead begins typing with a fervor that Keith rarely sees in his boyfriend. Knowing that this isn’t the best way to go about making a good impression (and as much as Lance won’t admit it right now, Keith knows that Lance really wants to make a good impression), he starts pointing out all of the errors in Lance’s letter.

“That shouldn’t be a comma.”

“You spelled erudite wrong.”

“Here’s another fragment.”

“‘Each other’ is two words. So is ‘a lot’.”

“Fine!” Spell broken, Lance briefly stops typing and Keith is able to take away his computer. Lance looks like he is going to fight for it back, but Keith quickly closes it and places it on the coffee table. Obviously deciding that the effort to reopen it and have to type in his password again would be too much, Lance just leans forward and wraps his arms around Keith.

Keith holds Lance back, adjusting to a slightly more comfortable position. “What happened today?”

“I didn’t get the part,” Lance mumbles into Keith’s chest. “I’m just an understudy.”

“That’s great! Lance, you’re only a year out of school. Getting to be the understudy for the main role is awesome when you’ve only been doing this professionally for so little time.”

“But I’ve been Joseph before,” Lance protests. “Now I’m just Moses.”

Keith feels his eyes widen. “Wait, seriously? You got a named role and you’re going to be an understudy as well?” When Lance nods, Keith pushes him a bit so that he can look in Lance’s face. “That’s awesome! You have to learn two parts and be ready to do either at a moment’s notice. The director has a lot of faith in you.”

Keith watches as Lance absorbs all of that. “Huh, I guess when you put it like that…”

Keith grins and leans in to kiss Lance. “Congratulations, honey. I knew that you would do great.”

> ****V. Chicken****

“Ooh, that smells good,” Lance complimented Keith as he entered the apartment after rehearsal. “What are we having?”

“Nervous birds,” Keith replied, sniggering. Lance paused in the middle of taking off his shoes, looking up at Keith in confusion.

When he saw Lance just staring, Keith tilted his head. “Have you not heard that yet?”

“Heard what?” Lance replied, still utterly mystified.

“Jim Harbaugh running his mouth. A Michigan quarterback said that Harbaugh doesn’t let his players eat chicken because it’s a ‘nervous bird’. He basically attributed the decline of America to when we started eating more chicken instead of red meat like beef and pork.” Keith was still cooking, but Lance could see him shaking slightly as he laughed.

Still leaning over, Lance started laughing and had to stand up before he fell over. “Wait, isn’t pork a white meat?” He had to lean against the door to regain his balance.

Giggling, Keith just shrugged. “Who even knows. He’s a crazy man.”

Lance’s laughter had calmed down enough to allow him to take off his shoes, so he wandered into the kitchen to help Keith finish dinner. It was indeed chicken, though it didn’t look too nervous seeing as it was dead. Though maybe that made it even more nervous? “Good thing we’re not still playing – Coran was nervous enough for all of us, we wouldn’t want to add to that.” This got a good laugh out of Keith as he plated the meals for them both.

And if they laughed throughout the rest of the night whenever they looked at or thought about the food, well no one could really judge them.

> **VI. Drooling**

Objectively, Lance was not attractive when he slept. He tended to sprawl – taking over the bed and all arms and legs. He also snored. Not loudly and not all night, but it happened. He also drooled. Keith had taken to making sure that his head was pillowed on Lance’s chest when they went to sleep instead of the other way around after multiple evenings of waking up an hour in to find that his chest was weirdly wet and Lance was practically pushing him off the bed.

Objectively this was all true – so Keith knew that there was something wrong with him when he walked in after an evening exam to find Lance passed out and half off the couch and only smiled fondly. If he had been thinking objectively, he should have been concerned about the angle Lance was putting his back in, and the small pool of drool that was accumulating under his face. But all Keith could think was how happy he was to be able to come home to this.

He grabbed himself a piece of candy to celebrate being done with his exam and waited until he was done with that to begin the process pf putting his soulmate to bed. Lance didn’t like being woken up once he was asleep, and this evening was no exception.

“Mph, I dun wanna,” he protested as Keith levered himself under and pulled Lance upright.

“You’d be more annoyed if I let you sleep the whole night where you were at,” Keith said, half leading half dragging Lance to the bedroom. “You’d be feeling it in the morning.”

“Hm, alright,” Lance conceded, still mostly asleep. “Only if you join me.”

Keith laughed softly. “I was planning to, but thanks for the permission.”

Lance nodded magnanimously, pleased with himself for offering Keith the privilege of sleeping in his own bed. Keith just laughed again and lowered Lance down. “Go back to sleep, honey. I’ll be right back.”

Lance nodded and was immediately back asleep. Objectively, Keith shouldn’t have this full feeling in his heart when he looked at his sleeping soulmate.

Subjectively, Keith could only smile at the sight.

> ****VII. Exhausted****

“How are you still upright?”

Keith only looked at Lance while taking a sip of his coffee before going right back to his computer. His thesis was due soon, Lance knew, but Lance also knew that Keith was done writing and only had small edits to go.

Lance decided to just hover until his soulmate needed him, knowing that it wouldn’t be long.

It took another three days and fifteen cups of coffee (Lance counted) before the crash came.

Lance entered the apartment slowly – he knew that Keith was home but he didn’t know why the windows were dark and the air completely silent.

“Babe?” Keith was sitting on the couch, simply staring at his computer. Lance approached slowly. “You alright?”

“It’s all there.”

“What?”

“It’s all there. I’m just going.”

Lance had no idea what Keith was talking about, nor did he think Keith knew what he was saying. “Right. Ready for bed?”

“But we need to do it.”

“Yes we do – we need to go to bed.” Lance was able to get an arm around Keith and he started moving them both towards the bed. “It’s time to take a break.”

“It’s really hot today.”

It was the middle of winter, but Lance let that one slide. “Yup, but if we sleep I bet it won’t be so hot tomorrow.”

It seemed that Keith was out of wisdom to share, so Lance laid him in bed and gave his forehead a kiss. The man as asleep within moments of being horizontal.

The following morning, Lance was awake before Keith and he knew that Keith didn’t have anywhere he absolutely needed to be, so he decided not to wake up the practically comatose man before he woke up on his own. When he did appear in the kitchen, Lance was making lunch.

“Hey there,” Lance greeted his soulmate. “How are you doing?”

Keith rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Better. Did I do anything bad last night?”

“Nah, you just looked exhausted so I got you to a bed to get some sleep. Grilled cheese?”

Keith took the plate, giving Lance a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for taking care of me.”

> ****VIII. Star****

Keith couldn’t sleep. This wasn’t uncommon – his subconscious had plenty of unpleasant memories to dredge up whenever it felt like he had gone long enough without a night terror. Thankfully, Lance was a deep sleeper so Keith’s startle awake didn’t also wake up his boyfriend. He knew that sleep wasn’t going to be coming anytime soon, so he grabbed a sweatshirt and carefully left the bedroom to sit on the balcony.

He always loved the stars. This is should come as no surprise, given that he was the one who decided that a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics wasn’t enough and was currently defending his master’s thesis in the subject. The light pollution was enough that he couldn’t see a ton of stars, but he loved to look at the ones he could see all the same.

The stars were a comfort to him, back in the days before he had met the Shiroganes. Before he had anyone, he always had the stars. They were always there, and he could pretend that he was doing science homework and not be bothered. They didn’t leave him, and as long as he could see the stars he knew that he wasn’t alone.

A mug of hot chocolate appeared in front of him. Blinking, Keith followed the arm to see Lance standing there with a small smile. When Keith took the mug, Lance sat down with his own mug and looked up as well. Keith took a grateful sip, enjoying this quiet moment.

Keith drank slowly, and by the time he was done Lance had long since finished and leaned against Keith, halfway asleep again. Keith knew that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again, but watching the sunrise while his soulmate rested against him seemed like a good way to spend his morning.

> ****IX. Precious****

Lance knew that this book was more precious to Keith than anything in the world; including his award for scoring the winning goal in the national championship match their junior year. Hell, he was pretty sure that it was more precious to Keith than Lance himself.

So of course he had managed to spill water all over the thing.

Lance was frantically googling how to get water out of books as he mopped up the mess, on the verge of tears. The best results seemed to suggest that he put paper towels between pages so he was methodically going through them when Keith entered the apartment. Lance could see his confusion, and when his eyes widened at the sight of his book Lance couldn’t help it – he burst into tears.

Keith didn’t move for a moment and Lance could see how tempted he was to just call Hunk, but instead he sat down at the table. Lance was still putting the paper towels between pages, making sure not to let his tears fall onto the book and make it any wetter than it needed to be.

“Are you alright?” Keith asked, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder.

Lance nodded, assuring Keith that he wasn’t hurt. “I’m fine, but I spilled water all ov– over your b– book. I’m so sorry!”

He finished the process by placing one of Keith’s stupidly large textbooks on top to help wring the water out and before he could move away he was pulled into Keith’s chest. “It’s just a book, Lance. I’m just glad that you’re not hurt – I thought you were.”

Lance wrapped his arms around Keith. “But it’s your favorite book – it’s _The Princess Bride_. And it’s the only Christmas present you got before you were thirteen – it’s not just a book. I know how precious that book is to you.”

“The book isn’t the precious thing, Lance – the memories are. I don’t need this specific book to keep those memories. Besides,” he continued, and Lance could hear the smile in his voice. “That book has been through a lot – this isn’t the first time it’s been dunked in water and it probably won’t be the last. It can take it.”

> ****X. Flowing****

The ceiling was dripping. That wasn’t an immediate problem – just move the things out of the affected area and call the landlord.

The problem really started when there was suddenly water flowing down from the apartment above them.

Keith swore loudly, drawing Lance’s attention from the kitchen. Lance then joined in the swearing party and they were both scrambling to save anything valuable from that area of the apartment.

They had gotten most of the important things to safety when there was a knock at the door. Lance was closest, so he opened it to reveal a frazzled woman.

“Oh my God, I am so sorry. Our kitchen pipe burst – we’ve been trying to get maintenance to come and fix it for ages but nothing ever happened and now both of our apartments apparently have water everywhere. Are you all ok down here?”

Keith took pity on her – it wasn’t her fault that their rental company was so terrible. “We’re fine – nothing irreplaceable got wet. Are you alright?”

She nodded. “Yeah, we’re good. Again I’m so sorry. If there’s anything we can do to help then just let us know – we’re in 328.”

Keith nodded and smiled as Lance closed the door and turned back around. “Well, at least that explains why we’ve suddenly got waterfront property.”

Lance snorted. “It also makes me want to move out tomorrow. Seriously – maintenance here sucks.”

“Where would we even find a place near campus anymore?”

“We could just buy a house.”

Keith could only stare. “You… you would want to do that? With me?”

Lance, soaking wet and still looking frustrated, smiled nervously. Keith thought that he never looked more beautiful. “I mean, yeah – unless you don’t want to. Like that’s a huge decision and I know that you are nervous about finishing your degree and starting your doctorate but this is probably the best time like real estate wise but also us wise I mean I feel like we’re ready to do something permanent even though we’re not married like I know that neither of us wants to get married till you’re done with school but at least if we do this now then we won’t have to worry about wedding planning while house hunting and that at least will–’

Keith cut off the rambling with a kiss. “Let’s find a house together.” Lance’s answering smile was radiant.

There was still water flowing from their ceiling, but Lance and Keith didn’t do anything more about that for the rest of the evening.

> ****XI. Cruel****

“In the role of Moses, Lance de la Cruz is the weakest link of the production. He lacks the experience to shine and one can only hope that he gains some confidence before he is ever called upon to portray Joseph.”

Keith gave up on trying to get Lance to stop reading the terrible review long ago, he simply sat next to Lance and put an arm around his shoulders. When it seemed like he was done, Keith pulled the newspaper away from him and spoke over Lance’s sound of protest. “Nope – you’re done with that.”

“But I have to see what the public is saying!”

“Not when they’re being needlessly cruel,” Keith countered. “Now come on, it’s bedtime.”

Lance was still feeling it the following day, so once he left for the evening’s show Keith embarked on a twitter hunt. He was still gathering tweets when he got an excited text from Lance.

 **ANAS Hamilton:** I’m going to be Joseph tonight!  
**Master’s and Commander:** Awesome! You’ll be great

Looks like his goal just got a little bit bigger.

The following morning, Lance was about to sit down and start reading the newspaper when Keith snatched it out of his hands and replaced it with a pile of printed papers.

“What?”

“Read those instead of this jerk,” Keith said, tossing the newspaper aside. He could see that Lance still really wanted to read it, but curiosity won over and he started on the papers Keith had printed out the previous night. They were all tweets from people who had gone to a show and were praising Lance – whichever role he had played that evening.

 **@ruler3995** _school for scandal was awesome – moses freaking stole the show. seriously – you all need to go see it even if only for him!_  
**@dapandabanda** _school for scandal @SoCalTheatreCo was so so good – I think I might be in love with Moses. Time to buy another ticket._  
**@raedeanner** _ngl SfS was a lot better than I thought. Sneerwell was fantastic and I was surprised Joseph was an understudy he knocked it out of the park.  
_**@ayrabelle13** _ok, I went to see sfs again and the joseph this time was so much better than the other guy. hope he gets called up again soon!_

It went on and on, and Keith could see Lance’s eyes misting up. “This is why you shouldn’t only read that guy in the paper,” he said. “You wanted to see what the public is saying – that’s what they’re saying.”

Lance stood up to hug Keith. “I love you too, babe. Thanks.”

> ****XII. Whale****

After the second time on the roller coaster, Lance knew that he needed to not keep going.

“But the line is so short!” Keith protested.

“Go ahead, I’m going to go hang out with the whales.”

Keith looked at him closely, but seemed to decide that he wasn’t going to be offended when Keith wanted to ride the coaster many more times and dashed back into the line after a quick kiss.

Sea World was always a fun time, even if you decided to ignore all of the conservation efforts and focus on the terrible press. But the terrible press meant that tickets were super cheap, so Lance and Keith were going to take full advantage of that.

Lance was watching a whale swim idly in circles when Keith reappeared, looking windblown and elated. “We should buy one.”

Lance looked at him askance. “A whale? Where would we even keep it?”

“No – a rollercoaster!”

“I still want to know where you intend on keeping it.”

Keith shrugged and Lance snorted. “I dunno – somewhere where I can ride it all the time.”

“You’re about to start your doctorate. Shouldn’t you be a little more focused on that rather than wanting to buy a roller coaster?”

Keith shrugged again. “Just because I’m getting a PhD doesn’t mean I don’t want to ride a coaster.”

Lance just shrugged his head. “Just sit here with me and watch the whales play. We’ll look at how long it would take to buy a roller coaster when we get home.”

> ****XIII. Guarded****

Keith placed his hand down, making sure to give nothing away. Face impassive, limbs still, eyes focused. He often prided himself growing up that he was calm in the face of danger – it gave him a reputation for fighting when the bullies would get angry at his non-reactions but he preferred to be guarded than have just anyone be able to read his emotions.

He could tell that Lance didn’t believe him, though. Lance’s eyes were narrowed, glancing between Keith’s face and his hand multiple times.

“I can’t tell if I want to call you out. I don’t believe you.”

Keith allowed himself a small smile, which just seemed to make Lance even more suspicious. “That’s up to you. I can’t make a decision for you.” He knew that Lance had nothing, and he was feeling more confident in his decision. Even if Lance was judging.

Keith could see Lance calculating, and he started tapping a finger to see how that would affect Lance’s thought process. Lance had been starting to brag lately that he was able to read Keith, even though Keith had always been a quiet, reserved type. It was time to see how much of Lance’s claim was empty boasting, and how much had any substance behind it.

“I call.”

Keith tilted his head, just watching Lance reveal his hand before smiling. He flipped his cards over, reveling in Lance’s mouth dropping open. “Full house. Looks like I win again.” Lance fell forward, head hitting the table with a long and drawn out swear as Keith laughed.

> ****XIV. Clock****

“How about this one?” Lance asks, pointing at another dresser.

Keith shrugs. “It looks fine. If you like it, then I think it’s good.”

Lance frowns, placing his hands on his hips to look at Keith’s face. He hasn’t offered up any solid opinions on anything for the house and it has been a whole month. “Do you really like our house?”

Keith’s eyes widen. “Of course. Why would you think that I didn’t?”

“You haven’t had a single opinion on it! You just say that you’re alright with what I pick. You need to have some ownership over it as well.”

Keith tilts his head. He doesn’t seem to understand what Lance means, and Lance can only shake his head. “What is something here that you would like to have in the house? Anything at all.”

Keith looks around, scanning the room quickly. They’re at a consignment store, so there is a truly varied assortment of things going on. He doesn’t see much at first, but Lance can see his eyes catch on something and light up. He glances back at Lance as though to gauge his reaction before pointing at a clock.

Not just any clock, but a cat clock. With a tail. That swings with every tick of the second hand.

Lance can see that Keith is wary of his reaction, but he has nothing to be worried about – Lance loves it. He smiles widely and walks over to the clock, holding it carefully. “This is beautiful. Anything else?”

And it works – Keith starts to offer up opinions. Lance smiles as they place their purchases in the house – it is finally starting to feel like home.

> ****XV. Weak****

Keith came home to Lance lying on the floor. There wasn’t any blood pooling and he was breathing, so Keith figured that he was fine and just pat him on the head as he stepped over an arm to put his bag down.

“Why do they have to be so good?” Lance moaned as Keith walked by.

A quick glance in the kitchen confirmed Keith’s suspicions – Lance had eaten an entire box of Girl Scout Samoas on his own. And Keith had only been gone for an hour. “How did you even manage that? They aren’t even that good – you’re just weak.”

Lance’s eyes flew open and he put a hand to his chest with an affronted gasp. “You take that back.”

Lance had not yet moved, so Keith didn’t bother to try and find a safe distance. “Thin Mints are the best. Anything else is just pretending.”

Lance looked like he was going to launch himself at Keith but only made it as far as sitting up before he had to double over in pain. Taking pity on his weird soulmate, Keith grabbed a glass of water and placed it near Lance on the ground. “Here. Don’t hurt yourself.”

“They’re just too good,” Lance complained, sipping at the water and slowly uncurling himself. “It’s not fair.”

Keith squatted down next to Lance, patting him on the shoulder. “At least you won’t be tempted again anytime soon.”

“I’m never buying another box in my life,” Lance declared dramatically, setting down the glass and flopping onto his back again.

Keith knew that was a lie, and he knew that Lance knew that as well. One of their neighbors had a daughter in Girl Scouts – and as soon as she rang their doorbell with an order form there would be a lot of boxes on their way to refill their freezer.

> ****XVI. Angular****

“Directions have degrees?”

“Yeah, it’s like a huge circle – zero being north and then it goes around clockwise.”

Keith frowned at the paper in his hands, not making much sense of it even with his brother’s words through the phone. “What the fuck.”

Shiro just snorted. “It’s common knowledge, Keith. Just because you enjoyed being the feral child that you were doesn’t discount the fact that our parents would have let you join scouts or something.”

“How is this even a scavenger hunt, though? Aren’t there supposed to be things I find?” Keith complained. “Like that’s what my RA did freshman year – gave us a list of things to take pictures of.”

“Did you actually do it?” Shiro sounds surprised, and Keith snorts. He wasn’t the type to do menial team building activities.

“Of course not. I copied and pasted a Google searched picture of each thing into one big collage, printed that off, signed my name to it, and stuck it on his door while I went to get food.”

Shiro laughed. “Yeah, that sounds more like you. Just try this – I think you’ll have fun.”

“Shiro, I’m literally twenty five years old. I don’t want to do this.”

“But Lance made it for you, so you will.” Dammit, Shiro had him pegged. He just grunted, and Shiro laughed again. “Just remember – north is zero degrees. Tell Lance hi from me when you find him.”

Keith got to walking. He measured the angles on Lance’s map and grumbled about why Lance couldn’t just give him directions using streets and right and left like a normal person.

But when he found the finish point at a nearby park, he couldn’t help but smile. Lance had set out a picnic, beer out and waiting for him.

“You made it!” he cheered when Keith sat down, leaning over to give him a kiss. “What did you think?”

“I often wonder why you are like this,” Keith responded, taking a drink of the beer and smirking when Lance looked affronted.

“But you loooove me! And look – I even packed your weird jelly stuff for your sammich!”

Keith smiled, leaning against Lance and enjoying the calm afternoon. “Thanks honey. But next time just give me a real map.”

> ****XVII. Swollen****

His ankle was starting to look more like a softball than an ankle. Lance frowned down at it, seeing the skin around the ice pack had started turning purple.

Keith walked over with a glass of water, smirking. “You’re getting old.”

“I am not!” Lance protested, taking the water and drinking in a huff.

“Yes you are – you can’t even play a pickup game with me in the back yard anymore.”

“It’s not my fault that there was a hole in my way,” Lance defended his honor. Of course it kinda was – he was the one that said he wanted to put in the pergola and then couldn’t figure out the post digger. Resulting in the hole in the back yard that his foot got caught in, causing his ankle to roll violently.

Judging by Keith’s smirk he was thinking of the same thing, so Lance just took a petulant drink of his water. Keith didn’t say anything, though, just left Lance to his pain.

Lance continued to glare at his ankle until the sounds of dinner being prepared started coming out of the kitchen. “Anything I can do to help?”

“I’m good,” Keith called back quickly. “Don’t stand up – you’ll just hurt yourself more.”

Lance couldn’t exactly argue that point when his ankle was the wrong size and the wrong color for a normal ankle, so he relaxed back into the couch and put on some music for them to listen to.

“What’s for dinner?”

“You’ll see.”

“It’s a good thing I trust you – I’d be worried you were going to poison me with how elusive you’re being.”

“It’s almost done – calm down.”

When Keith was finally placing a bowl in Lance’s lap, he looked smug. Lance eyed the bowl critically. “What did you do to my dinner?”

“I made you rice. Since you’re supposed to RICE when hurt.” Keith grinned, entirely too proud of himself for that.

Lance groaned. “You’re the literal worst.”

> ****XVIII. Bottle****

For some reason, Lance was determined to get Keith to like drinking wine. It wasn’t that he disliked wine – he just preferred beer. But Lance was adamant – so they started drinking wine with dinner on Mondays. Lance didn’t have rehearsal and Keith didn’t have any classes until Tuesday afternoon so it was the perfect evening to relax in their week.

It also meant that they were up late watching terrible movies, but they both knew that the movies were terrible so that made it acceptable.

Keith grinned at Lance while they were watching – enjoying his commentary on how terrible of actors the latest batch were.

“I mean seriously – who says that in that tone of voice? It’s like he’s not even trying!”

The more Lance got worked up, the more Keith laughed. It occurred to him that he wanted this – forever. They were soulmates so the assumption was there, but this was the first moment that Keith actually thought about it. It seemed like a good prospect.

Keith was getting the bottle to refill Lance’s glass (he hadn’t even finished one yet, himself) when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Curious who would be calling him at this time, he pulled it out to see Allura’s name on his screen and he grinned. He hadn’t talked to her or Shiro in a while.

“Hey, Allura.”

Instantly Keith knew that something was wrong. He heard a hitch in Allura’s breath and stopped dead in his tracks.

“Keith, there was a car accident. We’re alive, I promise, but Shiro he’s – he’s in the hospital.”

Keith only registered that the bottle had slipped out of his hand when he heard the sound of shattering glass.

> ****XIX. Scorched****

Lance could feel Keith’s agitation growing the closer they got to the hospital. His leg was bouncing and practically shaking the whole car, but Lance didn’t dare bring it up. He didn’t want to cause Keith any more distress.

As soon as they arrived, Keith bolted out of the car and Lance tried to follow. He didn’t know what Allura told Keith on the phone, but it was apparently enough that Keith didn’t bother stopping at the desk to ask for directions.

One flight of stairs and three hallways later, they entered a room and saw Allura sitting next to a bed. Keith made a beeline to Shiro’s other side while Lance paused to squeeze Allura’s shoulder.

“How are you doing?”

Her arm was in a sling, but she shook her head. “I’m fine. The other car hit his side – his arm was scorched so badly that they – they had to amputate.”

Keith’s eyes widened and he looked down ay his brother. Lance moved to the other side to comfort his boyfriend. “He’s alright, he’s alive.”

Keith could only nod. Allura spoke up. “They’re keeping him asleep until tomorrow morning – you guys don’t have to stay here.”

Lance snorted. “Yeah, like we’re going anywhere. I already called Professor Ryner and my director – we’re here with you as long as you need us.”

Allura looked relieved, and Keith surprised. It seemed that he really wasn’t paying attention during the drive – that’s when Lance had called the advisor to let her know what was going on. He dragged Keith into a seat and smiled at Allura. “Besides – they’ve got some pretty cool prosthetics now. He can get one with like flame decals or something. Or Hunk and Pidge might even build him one! That would make him like part robot!”

Allura and Keith both laughed and Lance smiled to himself. Mission accomplished.

> ****XX. Breakable****

Keith hated seeing his brother in the hospital bed. He knew it wasn’t logical, bur his brother always seemed invincible – he shouldn’t be lying here looking like this. Looking breakable.

Lance appeared at his side before he could spiral too far, bringing coffee. “Here. Allura said that she would be right back – something about food.”

Keith just nodded, taking a sip. Allura kept a halal diet with her dad – Keith assumed she was on the hunt for something she could eat. He had barely started to think about sending her a text to see how that hunt was going when a groan from the bed claimed his entire attention.

“Shiro!” He made sure to stay quiet, but he quickly moved to the bedside. His brother was awake – finally – and Keith felt a sigh of relief come out when Shiro’s eyes opened.

“Hey, Keith,” he whispered, grinning. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Keith scoffed. “Yeah, because I was just not going to come. Really?”

Shiro closed his eyes. “Fair enough. Where did Allura go?”

Lance spoke up, standing at the foot of the bed. “She said she’d be back soon – she went to find food.”

Shiro nodded. “Gotcha. Thanks, guys.”

Allura appeared then, rushing to Shiro’s side when she saw that he was awake and Keith stepped back with Lance. He wasn’t sure what to say to express his gratitude to his soulmate, but he didn’t seem to need to say anything. Lance pulled him into a quick hug, not letting go of his hand when they stepped apart. Keith had never been fond of hospitals, but he was glad to have Lance here now.

> ****XXI. Drain****

Keith was absolutely drained, Lance could tell. They got home from the hospital super late so he wasn’t feeling all that chipper himself, but Keith looked dead on his feet.

Lance took over when they got inside. He steered Keith to the couch, and turned on the TV to whatever sports were happening. He then went into the kitchen – he wasn’t a good cook and he didn’t particularly want to try so he pulled out the milk and cereal and some cups. Pouring some for each of them, he shoved one in Keith’s hand and sat down to join in the sports watching. Of course, it was midnight so there were no actual sports – just people talking about them. Neither he nor Keith was really paying attention to what was being said, they just reacted to the highlights that were shown.

It was a strange sort of peacefulness that enveloped them. They both munched on their cereal, snorting at the fumbled plays and nodding impressed at the top plays from the day. Lance felt like they were the only two in existence.

It didn’t take long for Keith to start nodding off, so Lance grabbed his cereal cup and stuck both in the sink to be dealt with the next day. He managed to get Keith awake enough to get him upstairs and out of his shoes, but neither of them were awake enough to take off their clothes so sleeping in what they wore was happening.

Lance was on the cusp of sleep when Keith curled into him. “Thanks,” he whispered right before his breathing evened out and he was fully asleep.

Lance smiled and kissed Keith’s head, passing out himself.

> ****XXII. Expensive****

“Congratulations, Doctor Park!”

Keith beamed, hugging Shiro back when he was pulled into his arms. He was finished with his doctorate, graduation had just ended, and he already had a job lined up starting the next school year – Keith was in a spectacular mood. “Thanks, Shiro.”

“I’m so proud of you, Keith.” Shiro led him over to where the rest of Keith’s friends were waiting with broad smiles.

“I have a fancy piece of paper.”

“An expensive fancy piece of paper,” Lance interjected, pulling Keith into another hug. Pidge was next, then Hunk, Shay, Rax, and finally Allura. They were all chattering away about the ceremony and couldn’t help but smile as Shiro, already used to his prosthetic, took pictures.

They all went to get food and Keith finally got to take off the stupid hat and robes. The ones that he had worn for his bachelor’s degree had been light – the versions for getting his master’s and doctorate were heavy and hot in the summer heat. From lunch they all went to Lance and Keith’s house to watch movies and eat more – Shay had baked him a cake and there was plenty of alcohol. They had the space, so everyone could stay the night if they needed to – which meant that no one could use the excuse of having to drive when the drinking games started up.

The movie was forgotten when Cards Against Humanity was brought out, and as everyone drank more the volume gradually increased. Along with the hilarity.

Keith grinned to himself as he walked back from getting another round. He was happy, and he was glad that he had such great friends to share his happy life with.

> ****XXIII. Muddy****

They had been in the back yard when the rain started, and foolishly thinking that it wouldn’t last long they waited outside for it to stop only to realize that it wasn’t going to. They had to run across the grass to get back to the house, which would have been fine if Lance hadn’t declared it a race and speeding ahead. Keith wasn’t going to let that one go, so he quickly caught up and caused Lance to trip, taking them both down into the mud.

“You’re gross.”

“I love you too.”

Lance wasn’t one to let opportunities pass either. He landed on top of Keith, so he leaned down to kiss him. Keith grinned back up, and Lance quickly jumped up and dashed to the house.

“You’re a dirty cheat.”

“But I won, so I get first shower. Don’t track mud in the house.”

Keith grumbled but assented to adjusting his clothes so that he wouldn’t get mud all over their living room. Lance draped his wet clothes over a towel bar and took a hot shower, dressing in sweats after. He now had exactly zero plans to leave the house again that day.

It was still pouring outside after Lance showered, so he snuggled up with a blanket and waited for Keith to finish his turn washing off. He put on a Disney movie to have something in the background and definitely didn’t jump when lightning flashed.

Once Keith was out of the shower, they both curled up together and watched the storm.

> ****XXIV. Chop****

He was cutting up carrots for dinner when Lance poked him in the side. Startled, he whirled and pointed the knife before realizing who it was and quickly dropping it.

“Holy shit, Lance, don’t do that! I’ve got a knife in my hand.”

Lance had backed up a few paces and raised his hands, eyes wide. “Sorry, I thought you heard me – I wasn’t trying to be sneaky.”

Keith shook his head. “Maybe just call my name first next time, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Lance frowned. “You should be more worried about yourself, babe – you’re bleeding.”

Sure enough, blood was running down his hand and getting dangerously close to the carrots. Keith swore and shifted his hand to the sink to wash it off. When it was sufficiently clean, Keith turned to get a paper towel only to have Lance grab his hand first. He still looked guilty as he started bandaging up the slices on Keith’s fingers, and Keith grinned when he saw that Lance had gone to get the first aid kit.

“You know that I can do that myself, right?” He had bandaged himself up plenty of times after fights in school, he was still used to it.

“But I want to,” Lance insisted. “It’s my fault, after all.”

“It’s fine, Lance,” he assured him. “This isn’t the first time I’ve cut myself with a knife and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

“Just don’t accidently chop a finger off,” Lance requested, finishing off the bandage with a grin.

> ****XXV. Prickly****

Keith was frowning at the cactus when Lance carried it inside. Lance only smiled wider.

“Why?”

“We need something to take care of! We shouldn’t do a pet with how weird our schedules are, but we can take care of a cactus!”

Keith wrinkled his nose, looking at it warily, and Lance just laughed. “It’ll be okay, babe. It’s not a cactuar – it won’t come alive and start attacking us. It’s just a little cactus.”

Keith still looked dubious but was willing to allow the cactus to live in the kitchen. Lance just laughed and put the small pot down. “We need something green in here, and we tend to not really pay attention to the yard or anything – hence, cactus. Minimal effort required. But we will have to name it.”

“Just call it Talcott and be done with it,” Keith says, cutting off the debate that he knew Lance would put up.

His comment still needed to be responded to, though. “Wait, that’s from XV isn’t it? Stop! You know that I don’t want any spoilers!”

Keith just rolled his eyes. “It’s hardly a spoiler that Talcott likes cactuars. Just be glad that I’m not telling you about what happens on the train to Nif–”

Lance lunged, cutting him off. “No! Bad soulmate!” He clapped his hands over Keith’s mouth, pushing him back into the couch.

Keith was laughing. “Not my fault that it’s been literal years and you’ve somehow managed to not finish the game and also not get spoiled.”

“I’m savoring it!” Lance defended himself. “Fine, I’ll play some more now – happy?”

Keith smirked. “Oh definitely, because I know what’s coming up.”

Lance just scowled at him – moving to start up the game system and resolving to ignore Keith at all costs.

> ****XXVI. Stretch****

Lance was starting to get better at cooking, but Keith was still the Kitchen King in their home. He was also used to making multiple things in his kitchen. He had to stretch slightly, but he could reach just about everything he needed from one spot as he got dinner ready. And with everyone coming over, he had a lot of food to prepare. He was used to cooking for the many different diets that their group kept to as well – he had a system that Lance had often tried to understand but continued to be baffled by.

He and Lance were the only ones with a house, so game nights tended to be hosted by them. It was really nice, though, having all of their friends living close. He also knew that they would be willing to help him out but Keith was protective of his kitchen. When others ‘helped out’ they tended to put things away wrong or mess up his system and he would have to redo everything anyways. At least they usually asked before bringing anything over – unlike Lance who sometimes bought things at the store that Keith had just stocked up on. It felt like they currently had enough sugar to last them the rest of their lives.

Lance breezed into the kitchen and refilled Keith’s beer, giving him a kiss before heading back out to continue getting the living room ready.

Keith grinned to himself. He supposed that Lance was alright, even if their baking shelf was overflowing with sugar.

> ****XXVII. Thunder****

A crash of thunder startled Lance out of his sleep, looking around warily and glad to see that the house had not in fact fallen down around him. It sure sounded like it could have.

He rolled over to snuggle up with Keith and go back to sleep, but the bed was missing one soulmate. When it remained that way after a few minutes, Lance got up and pulled on a sweatshirt. Getting up and staying awake meant night terror – Keith hadn’t had one in a while and Lance had hoped that the night terrors were behind him. Maybe the storm brought them back.

Keith was curled up in the armchair and reading when Lance walked into the living room. He was engrossed enough that he didn’t notice Lance until Lance perched on the arm rest with a hot chocolate refill.

“Oh, thanks. Sorry if I woke you up.”

Lance shook his head. “Nah, the storm did. You alright?”

Keith had gotten better about answering this question truthfully over the years. “Not right now, but I will be. It wasn’t too bad.”

Lance nodded, dropping a kiss to Keith’s forehead and crawling his way into his lap. “Good.”

They had bought this chair knowing that it was big enough to support the both of them, so Keith just huffed a laugh and moved his arms so that Lance had an easier time of getting comfortable.

Lance no longer felt bad about falling back asleep when Keith couldn’t, and he drifted off again quickly to the sound of Keith’s heartbeat.

> ****XXVIII. Gift****

“What do you want for your birthday?”

“I don’t know.”

Keith frowns at his boyfriend. “You’re no help.”

Lance just shrugs, still remarkably unhelpful, and Keith scowls some more. He doesn’t like getting a present for someone that they don’t want or don’t need – and even though he has lived with Lance for a few years now he still never knows what to get him.

 Keith sighs and goes to his phone. He has a note in there of the random things that Lance has mentioned wanting over the years. It’s the only way Keith can have an idea of what to get for the guy. He goes through it to keep it updated every holiday and just buys whatever’s at the top of the list that Lance doesn’t have yet.

Which, right now, is some wine luggage.

Keith orders it and thinks back to when it was added to The List. They had taken a trip to Wine Country with the plan of just tasting some wine and enjoying the scenery. Five wineries and four bottles of wine later, they were trying to pack to head home and Lance was trying to figure out how to pack so that he could get his clothes home along with the alcohol. Though if something had to give, Keith knew that it would have been the clothes to get left behind.

_“Okay, I think I’ve got everything packed and secured. Thank goodness I packed in a hard-case carry-on; otherwise I’d be afraid that the wine would all break on the flight home.”_

_“Or you could just not have bought so many bottles.”_

_“How could you even suggest such a thing! Even you liked all of these ones!”_

They’re going to Napa again next year, so this will work out well.

> ****XXIX. Double****

Lance is finishing lunch and getting ready for the evening’s rehearsal when his phone buzzes.

 **Doctor Jamilton:** My office hours just ended – about to get some food and then grade papers. Why?

Lance reads it three times – yes, it makes sense, but at the same time it really doesn’t.

 **ANAS Hamilton:** …have fun? Why what?  
**Doctor Jamilton:** You just texted me asking where I was. I was curious why you were asking.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** I didn’t text that today – I texted that yesterday when we got separated at the park.  
**Doctor Jamilton:** _screenshot.png_  
**ANAS Hamilton:** Well, apparently my phone is sentient and sending texts without my knowledge.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** That’s good to know.

Lance frowns at his phone but shrugs and puts it out of his mind. Maybe it was having trouble sending yesterday and just got a super delayed kick start.

A few days later, it seems to be happening again.

 **Doctor Jamilton:** Still no. My answer isn’t going to change just because you keep asking.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** Ugh, I think my phone is duplicating texts again. What’d it ask you this time?  
**Doctor Jamilton:** If I would be willing to take you lunch.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** I swear that I’m not sending these on purpose.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** _screenshot.png_  
**ANAS Hamilton:** See? Nothing on my end.  
**Doctor Jamilton:** Weird.  
**Doctor Jamilton:** Still not bringing you lunch though.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** You wound me.

And then it stops for a while. Lance thinks he’s in the clear until

 **Doctor Jamilton:** uh, what?  
**ANAS Hamilton:** That’s it, I’m getting a new phone.  
**Doctor Jamilton:** Didn’t send it again?  
**ANAS Hamilton:** No! This is getting annoying.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** Soon it’s going to send a text that sounds really bad out of context.  
**Doctor Jamilton:** Too late for that.  
**Doctor Jamilton:** _screenshot.png_  
**Doctor Jamilton:** I mean, not that I’d be opposed to part of that, but the rest…  
**ANAS Hamilton:** Welp, time to go kill myself.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** Oh god, now that’s another one that it can take out of context and send and make you uncomfortable.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** I’m getting a new phone tonight. Don’t be surprised when I’m home late.  
**ANAS Hamilton:** And, if you really wouldn’t be opposed, I’d be down for some this evening ;)

Lance shoves his phone in his pocket, telling it about how it is going to be replaced. Even if this last one wasn't too bad...

> ****XXX. Jolt****

It is with no small amount of surprise that Keith realizes tomorrow is his anniversary. How another year managed to pass them by he had no idea, but he has no gift ready and now has very little time to get it ready.

A small part of his brain reminds him of the small box in his work bag. He tells that small part to shove off.

But it keeps coming back. It reminds him about the mornings that he tested rings on Lance’s fingers to make sure that the sizing was perfect. It reminds him of the jewelry store trip with Shiro to get their dad’s ring resized. It reminds him that he and Lance are soulmates and that Lance won’t laugh at him.

He still shoots off a panic-text to his brother.

 **PhDone:** I think I’m going to do it tomorrow.  
**Best Bro:** That’s awesome! You need any help?  
**PhDone:** Assurances that he won’t laugh in my face would be welcome. And mom’s apple pie recipe.  
**PhDone:** Also when the hell did you change your name in my phone?  
**Best Bro:** I didn’t – I’m going to assume you can blame that one on Lance.  
**Best Bro:** What is it?  
**PhDone:** _screenshot.png_  
**Best Bro:** Your boyfriend is weird. Please change it to something else.  
**Best Bro:** But Lance is not going to laugh in your face. He’s going to say yes and you’re going to be happy and he’s probably going to cry and that’ll make you cry and you’re going to live happily ever after.  
**Best Bro:** Also here’s the pie recipe:  
**Best Bro:** _picture.png_  
**PhDone:** Thanks :]

Keith smiles to himself and inventories his pantry. He has a pie and a speech to prepare.

> ****XXXI. Slice****

Lance bites into his pie slice, grinning. Once they are done here, it will be time for his plan. A short drive to the shore, a practiced speech, and hopefully by the end of the evening Keith will be his fiancé.

He is distracted enough that he doesn’t notice anything weird about his bite until his teeth hit something hard. He glances up, but Keith is still eating. He had been so adamant about baking this pie – Lance doesn’t want to ask what is wrong with it. He tries to discreetly move the hard bit around with his tongue so that he can take it out, but he is confused when the hard bit feels smooth. And round. And… and hollow in the middle.

Abandoning all attempts at subtlety, Lance pulls a ring out of his mouth and stares. When he sees Keith looking nervous, he swallows his bite and speaks. “Uh, what’s this?”

“Well,” Keith starts, moving his pie away and reaching out to clean off the ring. “I was going to ask in some sappy way but chickened out and put the ring in a pie instead. But hopefully that doesn’t affect your decision.”

Lance knows exactly where this was going, and he can’t get his mouth to say a thing.

“So we’re soulmates and all, but I really love you Lance. Even if fate hadn’t decided to stick us together, I would still choose you. And I hope that you feel the same, enough to choose me forever. Will you marry me?”

He hasn’t gotten down on one knee, which Lance finds very irritating because it means that he has to get up and walk all the way around their table to throw himself into Keith’s arms.

“Of course! I love you, Keith; I choose you every day and will continue to until the sun blows up the planet.”

“I think that humanity will have moved off the planet by then,” Keith responds, because of course they are having this conversation while he is putting a ring on Lance’s left hand.

“Until the sun blows up whatever planet humanity is on, then,” Lance amends, sticking his tongue out. Something catches up with him then and he leans back to punch Keith in the shoulder. “But what the heck, you jerk! Did you know my plan for the evening? You just had to beat me to it.”

When Keith’s only response is a blank stare Lance hops up to dash to their room, walking back out with a ring box. Keith’s eyes widen and Lance smirks. “Yeah, I was planning on asking at the beach later this evening. I assume you’ll say yes, then?”

Keith grins back, shrugging. “Sure, I guess so.”

“I’m really feeling the love over here,” Lance responds, slipping the ring onto Keith’s hand in return. Despite their words, neither can quite dampen their bright smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> II. Lyrics are in [Hurricane from Hamilton](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZfzuJ8oVpE) – not the meaning behind the song, but the lyrics worked. The eye of the hurricane is meant to just be the summer between classes - right before their senior year. That's why it's the eye.
> 
> V. [This](https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/07/30/jim-harbaugh-eating-chicken-michigan-football-players-nervous-bird) is all I can think of when I think about chicken anymore. Harbaugh’s a nut job. Nervous birbs.
> 
> XI. If Lance’s name in Keith’s phone confuses you, go listen closely to [the cast recording of My Shot from Hamilton.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic7NqP_YGlg) Someone misspells ALEX when they’re spelling out his name and it’s awesome.  
> Keith’s name in Lance’s phone is because Keith now has his Master’s degree.  
> All of the bolded twitter handles are real people, including myself. Hope the others don’t mind being used here – they’re all cool people.
> 
> XXIII. Today (23 Oct) is Keith's birthday! Happy birthday, Keith!
> 
> XXV. Today (25 Oct) is Prompto Argentum's birthday, so I've got Final Fantasy XV on the brain.
> 
> XXIX. [Doctor Jamilton](http://maximumfun.org/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/my-brother-my-brother-and-me-53-doctor-jamilton) is from a podcast called [My Brother, My Brother, and Me](http://maximumfun.org/shows/my-brother-my-brother-and-me). Now that Keith's got his doctorate Lance needed to change his name in his phone - and since his name in Keith's phone is still a Hamilton reference he decided that he wanted their names to rhyme.  
> Also my old phone did what Lance's phone is doing and it made for some weird text conversation starters.
> 
> XXXI. I love the trope of both partners proposing / planning to propose at the same time, so I couldn’t resist.

**Author's Note:**

> I has a [tumblr](http://ayrabelle.tumblr.com/).


End file.
